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The Wheel of Fate is Turning...

BlazBlue, pronounced "blaze-blue", or "blay-blue" in Japanese, is a Fighting Game series by Arc System Works, and a Spiritual Successor to Guilty Gear. This series has about as large a fandom, if not more, as its technical daddy.

The main games of the series are the following:

A DSiWare side game named BlazBlue: Battle X Battle has also been released in Japan featuring Super-Deformed characters and gameplay similar to Power Stone. A North American version was released under the title BlayzeBloo: Super Melee Brawlers Battle Royale.

A spin-off Visual Novel named XBlaze Code: Embryo was released in 2014, telling a story set 150 years before Calamity Trigger. The game was followed by XBlaze Lost: Memories in 2015.

A light novel entitled BlazBlue Phase 0 written by Komao Mako, illustrated by BlazBlue's lead artist Katou Yuuki and based on a story from BlazBlue creator Mori Tochimichi was published by Fujimi Shobo on August 20, 2010 [1]. The story begins when Ragna has a chance encounter with Caelica, a young lady harboring a mysterious power, and involves the mysteries of the BlazBlue world.

A sequel, entitled BlazBlue Phase Shift, was released in April 2011. This time the focus shifts to Yuuki Terumi, while also elaborating more on Nine and Trinity before she became Platinum.

An official monthly webcomic entitled BlazBlue Chimelical Complex by Haruyoshi Kob began on August 6 on Famitsu's Comic Clear website. It can be viewed here. Too bad it's written in Japanese.

This series has character sheets for each sub-series. Please place all character-specific tropes there.

Rebel 1! ACTION!
  • The Abridged Series: It can be found here.
  • Aerith and Bob: This game can't decide whether it wants to be Japanese or not. The NOL would certainly appear to be, if it weren't for all the Gratuitous Latin thrown in. While most RPGs have a decent amount of mixing, it still makes no sense why Jin is meant to be English but has a completely Japanese name, or why he and Saya have Japanese names while their brother Ragna doesn't. Bang comes from the so-far most traditionally Japanese part of the world, even referring to himself in eastern order, but has a western first name. Konoe A. Mercury is the other way around. Also, normal names like Noel, Carl and Rachel are joined by completely made up ones like Litchi, Tager and Valkenhayn. For the DLCs, we also have Makoto Nanaya right next to Platinum the Trinity, who has personalities that go by "Sena" and "Luna". And let's not forget: Hazama/Terumi Yuuki is working next to a man named Relius Clover. Then everything goes to hell once it's implied that the BlazBlue world is actually supposed to be modeled after this one.
    • The English dub makes things a little more confusing. The NOL uses Latin, Jin and Hakumen use Japanese words, Bang uses English words but keeps translated prefixes (Ninja Style Art:) for his distortions, Carl and Relius use Latin as well, and it just becomes one big mess of Gratuitous Foreign Language mixed with translation issues.
  • After the End
  • All There in the Manual: There is so much of the background information available in the side materials that you can somewhat predict what will happen in the next game if you are up to date with the side materials. Unfortunately none of them are officially translated.
  • Alliteration: You did read the title, right?
  • Anime Theme Song: "ao-iconoclast" by KOTOKO.
    • Continuum Shift continues this by bringing back KOTOKO with the song "Hekira no Sora e Izanaedo"
    • The Updated Rerelease Continuum Shift II has "Shinsou", now by Asami Imai.
  • Apocalypse How: A variant on a Class 1, thanks to the Black Beast. Most of the Earth (at the lower elevations, at least) is still inhospitable to most forms of life, thanks to the high concentrations of seithr. However, unlike most Class 1's, humanity came out with a little extra something: the Ars Magus.
  • Arc Words: "The Wheel Of Fate Is Turning" hints at the Groundhog Day Loop.
  • Artifact of Doom: The titular BlazBlue, aka Azure Grimoire and various Nox Nyctores and Armagus. The only characters who aren't confirmed to possess one or be an Eldritch Abomination are Taokaka, and Makoto.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Apparently, Tomokazu Sugita and Yuuichi Nakamura also play BlazBlue on their free time.
  • Ascended Meme / Sure Why Not: The vocalist for Okkusenman posted a vocal version of Bang's theme on Nico Nico Douga. It was recently revealed that on the Continuum Shift OST, Bang's voice actor is singing a vocal version of the theme with the very same lyrics as the original version.
    • Continuum Shift's English translation has an achievement called BEES, referencing the "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEES" meme.
  • Autobots Rock Out: Daisuke Ishiwatari did the soundtrack, are you surprised in the slightest? It's actually subverted a bit; when the Theme Music Power-Up kicks in, the music goes from the rest of the soundtrack's metal to Kotoko's vocal J-Pop.
  • Awesome but Impractical: Most Astral Heats.
  • Beyond the Impossible: This seems to be the intent of the creator of the Calamity Trigger PC hack. Check out the Game Breaking Distortions and the retelling of Ragna's story.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Everything bad that's happened within this series can be traced back to Yuuki Terumi and Relius Clover.
  • Big Screwed-Up Family: Ragna, Jin and Saya lived in an orphanage. Jin's neediness led to depraved insanity, Ragna turned into a half vampire Heroic Sociopath and Saya was kidnapped to be used as a template for androids of mass destruction. Eventually we find out that Ragna is the reincarnation of a beast that once went unto destroying the world labeling him as the destroyer of worlds, Jin being the world's "antibody" and Saya being the Imperator of the NOL.
    • As of Continuum Shift, the Clover family can also be put in this category. There's the father, Relius Clover, who is obsessed with creating the perfect puppet, going as far as turning his daughter Ada and his wife to puppets, along with being one of the series' two Big Bads. Carl, Ada's younger brother, gets tempted and self-manipulated into performing acts of violence for his sister and does some pretty fucked up things at times, all to turn his sister back and to find his father to get revenge.
  • Black and Gray Morality: There is very little good in the BlazBlue world. The NOL is an oppressive organization ruled by a menacing, unseen Imperator, which is not such much 'black' as it is an extreme case of Well Intentioned Extremism that prevents the world from plunging into an age of utter chaos where war can erupt anywhere if the wrong maniac gets a hold of the wrong Artifact of Doom. Unfortunately, the 'oppressive' regime looks like it does because it has such wonderful enforcers as a Troll who caused much of the destruction seen thus far in the game strictly For the Evulz; a Puppet Master who transformed his own wife and daughter into weapons with his insane experiments, and a colossal jack-off with a murderous hard-on towards his older brother. And it's supposedly the former two who could be manipulating NOL into the oppressive organization everyone else believes it to be; (The Imperator herself could very well be a Puppet King for them). On the heroes' side, we have a One-Man Army who will stop at nothing to destroy the NOL, even if this means slaughtering every government worker he comes across, this includes innocent Punch Clock Villains who're just getting their paycheck. Then there's Sector Seven, a clandestine organization opposed to the NOL, but with so much dirty laundry they'd need to rent out a whole damn laundromat to clean it out. Of note is the fact that one of their top-ranking scientists is so hellbent on revenge towards one of NOL's enforcers that she is fully prepared to launch a nuclear strike against a whole city should her plan of using a reformatted clone as a weapon for her vengeance go awry. Yep, this is one hell of a Crapsack World.
    • There are some genuinely good characters who aren't affiliated with both sides though. Litchi is a very nice and compassionate woman... except she's now on the NOL side. Though, to be fair, she could probably just count as yet another victim of manipulation and coercion by the above Complete Monster Troll, being told that the NOL has the cure for her abominized boyfriend (which, for all intents and purposes, they could destroy easily if she does anything they don't want). Taokaka does have good intentions, but she's a ditz. Bang fights for frigging justice and protecting the people! He's the series Joke Character story-wise and is never treated seriously, but he's got nothing but good intentions in mind for protecting others. Makoto is pretty much an all-rounder and generally cheery nice girl, with the only thing that could possibly piss her off is the notion of any harm coming to Noel. Which might look nice on paper, but also mitigated that she can betray ANYONE for her, so there comes the possibility of her letting the world get destroyed just so long as Noel is well protected... Not to mention that thanks to her Bad End by Relius, we do know she's hiding severe racism issues that can be unleashed when certain buttons are pressed... yeah. It's that kind of world.
    • Iron Tager is mostly a nice guy as long as you have nothing to do with his mission, (as in, it doesn't require him to pummel you to death,) his biggest problem being that he is loyal to a fault to Kokonoe, the earlier mentioned vengeanceful scientist with plans to Nuke Em All if things don't go as she wants them to, who apparently keep Sector Seven's dirty laundry from being known by him. He does have a justification that Kokonoe programmed him to be all loyal to the tee, he can argue with her amoral decisions, but he always would obey, and no plans for fixing that no matter how called out he is.
    • Hakumen is the legendary hero who defeated the Black Beast. Like Bang, he fights for justice, and unlike Bang, the story doesn't treat him as a joke. And when he learns of Kokonoe's backup plan, his reaction is nothing but horror and disgust. ...Unfortunately, he's also got an ego the size of Kagutsuchi and his brand of justice involves killing The Hero, and if his Badass Boast and words at the end of CS, 'cleaning up the world from humans and restart it anew' is part of the brand. He is not open to alternative solutions.
    • The Good, the Bad, and The Evil: When it boils down to it, even when The Good is pretty gray, it's still based on this:
      • The Good: Anyone opposing the NOL (Sector Seven included).
      • The Bad: The NOL.
      • The Evil: Hazama & Relius.
  • Bounty Hunter: Referred to as "vigilantes" in-game.
  • Break Meter: The Guard Libra/Guard Primer system.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Happens in several episodes of "Teach Me, Ms. Litchi".
  • Butterfly of Doom: This is pretty much the whole basis of the story. Hence "The Wheel of Fate is Turning".
  • Buxom Is Better: Played amazingly straight with Litchi and Makoto. Also averted with Noel.
    • Lampshaded by Taokaka. Hilarity Ensues when she names Litchi "booby lady" and Noel "Lacking Lady".
      • Some of her battle quotes enhance the hilarious effect.

Taokaka: [To Litchi] Hey Booby Lady!
Taokaka: [To Noel] Are you sure you're a lady?

    • Lampshaded to a hilarious, gut-busting degree in Continuum Shift during the new "Teach Me Ms. Litchi" episodes.

Litchi: Tao! Are you alright?!
Taokaka: [After being electrocuted in front of Litchi, Makoto, Tsubaki, and Noel] Uh... I see three sets of boobies and... one cutting board.
Noel: [Utterly embarrassed, sobbing] A ... A cutting board? She compared me to a... a cutting board!?

    • Makoto's section of "Help Me! Professor Kokonoe!" confirms this trope to be in play. Kokonoe is, let's just say, very pissed off and jealous at Makoto's boob size... and she's number two.
  • Call Back: In Tager's Story Mode, when you go to meet the NOL Reverse Mole, you're given a password to initiate the meeting. The password is "Gnu", but you're given a second password, "Baa", that initiate the Gag Reel. In Makoto's Story Mode, where she falls into the alternate timeline, she bumps into Tager, who's looking for her. Guess what the real password is? [1]
  • The Cameo: The Bururaji Radio (BlazBlue radio show) features a cameo by of all people... SOL BADGUY. Drawn in chibi like other BlazBlue chibi characters.
    • In a later one, Ishiwatari one-ups Sugita's recurring segment with "Scold Me More, Badguy! (Heart Symbol)"
    • And later there's also cameos of Heart Aino and Yosuke Hanamura. Usually when to promote an ASW collab.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Justified Trope. Terumi's presence in the world is maintained by the protagonist's (mainly Ragna's) hatred of him, so keeping a puppy just for kicking is actually a survival tactic for him.
  • Cast of Snowflakes: Not just in terms of the characters themselves, but also in gameplay: every character has a unique game mechanic that no other character has access to.
  • Catgirl: People from the Kaka Clan are generally composed of these, with males being a rarity. Kokonoe, on the other hand, is a half-nekomata.
  • Character Development: Quite a bit of it too, particularly in Continuum Shift.
  • Chekhov's Armoury: Shows up in the fifth episode of Teach Me Miss Litchi Reloaded in Continuum Shift. The missing Nox Nyctores will undoubtedly show up in the sequel.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Word of God states that red represents rebellion, while blue represents order.
  • Combo Breaker: Barrier/Break Burst. Every character also has a counter command usable while blocking, but it uses up 50 Heat.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: The explanation of how seithr works means this is literally a fundamental law of the universe in BlazBlue; there's only so much in a given area for anyone to use.
  • Crapsack World: Go read the Black and Gray Morality entry, come back and see if you want to say otherwise...
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: If you came here from Guilty Gear, pressing all four face buttons sets up an Instant Kill. Try that here and you get the defense-lowering (at least in Calamity Trigger) Barrier Burst instead.
  • Devil but No God: Terumi is the closest you can get for a Satan Expy who's pretty active in ruining everyone's lives. A benevolent God? Don't even think about it (Takamagahara is quite the Jerkass God).
  • Divine Chessboard: Everyone seems controlled by Jubei, and Rachel on the protagonists' side. Just about everything else in the story is being controlled by Hazama and Relius.
  • Downer Ending: Both game's true routes and the arcade endings for both games - every single one ends with the character in question ultimately failing to make a difference, except for Hazama.
  • Dramatic Irony: Goes a lot, especially in Continuum Shift. For instance, Carl gets calmed down and regained his trust on adults thanks to Litchi... not knowing that Litchi is on NOL's side and sided with Relius... WITHOUT knowing the reasons of her doing so. And on the other hand, Litchi didn't know there's a certain Boundary-rending Nox Nyctores called "Phoenix Rettenjou" which may be the key to her problems... and it's in Bang's possession, and he wasn't even aware at first. Bang was at least told about its function by Platinum eventually... and then he doesn't even know Litchi's problems. All these information were known by the audience, leading to things from speculations, assumptions, etc.
  • Dysfunction Junction: Easily one of the most screwed up casts of fighters ever.
    • Let's see... Jin's either a sociopath or a Yandere. Carl's walking around with the living corpse of his sister and is scarred for life; his father murdered his wife and daughter. Tao's hyperactive and is, well, an idiot. Litchi's got a severe case of Guilt Complex. Arakune lost his mind. Kokonoe comes off as mad at the world. Hazama's a Complete Monster. Platinum has DID. Hakumen's an entirely different level of sociopath. And this is just the top of the barrel!

Ragna: Dear god, why me? Why do I always seem to attract the who's who of mental illness...?

  • Engrish: For whatever reason, none of the announcers, default or DLC, were dubbed into English. This gives us gems such as "LOOK AT TIME",[2] "Caruru Crowbar",[3] "Air-a-koo-nay",[4] "REEBOO"[5] and many, many more.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Just looking at the playable characters, we have normal humans, vampires, a cyborg, magic-wielding robot girls, an insect-filled Eldritch Abomination, a cat girl, a squirrel girl, a Highly-Visible Ninja, a Magical Girl with 3 personalities inhabiting one body, a samurai who's sword is longer than is physically possible to unsheathe, and a werewolf butler.
  • Finishing Move: Known as Astral Heats, these moves can only be used during the final round, when the opponent has less than 25% life remaining. In the arcade version of Calamity Trigger, only Ragna, Rachel and Nu -13- have Astral Heats, a fact which, according to Word of God, was related to the game's plot. This is, Astral Heats are only unlocked in the console versions when a character completes their Arcade Mode; with each Arcade Mode being one iteration of the Groundhog Day Loop. At the time of the arcade game, only Ragna, Rachel and Nu -13- have completed their "loops" and gained the Astral Heat power. Continuum Shift has raised the maximum health to 35% and allowed their usage in the match point round, but in return you need to burn a Burst.
  • Five-Man Band:
    • Also forming in Continuum Shift's True End:
    • The vigilantes all travel together in Bang's CS story, and are starting to form their own Five-Man Band of sorts
      • The Hero: Bang Shishigami
      • The Lancer: Taokaka (probably left the position to join Ragna in the end)
      • The Smart Guy: Carl Clover
      • The Big Guy: Nirvana/Ada
      • The Chick: Platinum The Trinity. Even though she isn't technically a vigilante, she travels with the group enough to be considered a part of it.
    • The Six Heroes in the past:
  • Fixed-Floor Fighting
  • Flawless Victory: "Perfect!"
  • Foregone Conclusion: The prequel novel Blazblue Phase 0. If you've played the games you already know whats going to happen. The Black Beast will be unleashed and nearly cause the end of the world. A group of people whom will be known as the Six Heroes will rise up and lead the remnants of humanity to challenge and eventually slay the beast. Hakumen is Jin. Bloodedge will sacrifice himself to save Jubei. Caelica will watch over the Black Beast's remains, but while we know what will happen, we don't know how it happened, which the novel will explain.
  • Foreshadowing: Hakumen's Shipuu (Squall) Distortion Drive is a slower, stronger version of Jin's Touga Hyojin (Arctic Dagger) Distortion Drive.
    • Amazingly, the two different Japanese covers for the Play Station 3/360 ver of CT. Play Station 3 = Ragna/Jin/Noel 360 = Ragna/Hakumen/Nu-13. Its technically the same three people on the cover.
    • Lambda plays her "Nox Nyctores detected..." intro against Badass Normal Bang. That can't be right?
    • A fake (but still made by AKSYS) trailer for A BlazBlue movie had Litchi end up turning evil. Guess what happened in Continuum Shift..
  • Forgotten First Meeting: The second game reveals that as a student Ragna met Taokaka while she was still a kitten (although he might remember, she doesn't). In this case their relationship is strictly platonic, however.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Makoto is Sanguine, Jin is Choleric, Tsubaki is Melancholic, and Noel is Supine.
  • Fourth Wall Mail Slot: Each character who reaches a bad ending in story mode is treated to an episode of "Help Me, Professor Kokonoe!", where she gives you advice on what you did wrong and how to avoid it the next time around. She's not afraid to berate the player for it either.

"If you're one of those players who are like "I don't need help", or "I just want to unlock hidden stuff", or "I'll just look up a Flowchart online", then you can PISS OFF!"

    • There's also the "Teach Me, Miss Litchi!" segments that help explain the story to the player by elaborating some of the backstory of the characters, and what certain things are like seithr, the Boundary, Ars Magus, Nox Nyctorus, etc.
  • Freudian Trio: In Sector Seven
    • Id: Makoto.
    • Ego: Iron Tager.
    • Super Ego: Kokonoe.
  • Gainaxing Jiggle Physics: Any girl with above-average breasts, namely Boobie Lady Litchi and Squirrel Girl Makoto.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: In game, it's possible for anyone to beat anyone else, and the chance of you winning (theoretically) has more to do with your skill than with a character you're playing.
    • Power-Up Letdown: Subverted in Story Mode during some fights: Ragna can't use any of his D attacks against Unlimited Hazama when he claims his Soul Eater doesn't work on him and pressing the button just stuns him briefly, Jin can only use A and B attacks normally, no special attacks and his D attacks have a much shorter range and obviously don't freeze when Yukianesa refuses to activate but fights the next battle in Unlimited mode when his willpower causes it to reactivate, wounded characters start the match with only half health, some fights end when you reduce your opponent's life to 20% or less instead of depleting it completely to emphasize their strength and so on.
  • Genius Ditz: Yes, Makoto likes doing things like eating way too much food and climbing trees for exercise. She also went to the Military Academy on scholarship and joined the Intelligence Bureau at the Librarium, not to mention playing as a double agent for Sector Seven.
  • Genre Relaunch: Along with Street Fighter 4, it's responsible for reviving the 2D Fighting Game genre.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Arakune's research tapes reveal that his research into the Boundary and the nature of seithr led him to slowly lose his mind, as well as his original (humanoid) physical form. Or so we are meant to believe. In reality, it wasn't the Boundary that made him lose his form, but his experiments on himself to turn him into an Azure Grimoire, of sorts. He failed. Big time. Hazama/Terumi makes fun of him for it.
  • Gratuitous English: The declaration at the start of every battle: The Wheel of Fate is turning. Rebel 1: Action!

"Fainaru Ansaa?"[6]

    • Taokaka's voice actress (as the announcer) has some horrible ones.

"Please Slect Yer Kawactur. Laycha Alucrd! Jean Kisooragee! Lambda Leben!"

    • Jin's "EKUSAITINGU"[8] and "DANJERUSU"[9] pursuit of his brother.
  • The Greatest Story Never Told: Only the Six Heroes seem to know that the only reason the Black Beast didn't make any moves against the world for a year (which bought the Six Heroes the time they needed to teach people the Ars Magus that would eventually defeat the Black Beast) was because it was too busy fighting against the original Bloodedge. The rest of the world has probably never even heard of the name "Bloodedge"—until Ragna started using it of course. This story is eventually told in Phase 0, which also reveals that Ragna and the original Bloodedge are one and the same.
  • Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Done a lot in story mode, most notoriously in fights against Hazama.
    • Nu has a bad habit of performing her Astral Heat in cutscenes after losing a story mode match.
  • High School AU: Carl's Gag Reel in Continuum Shift. It doesn't just feature the cast who were former students of the NOL Academy (i.e. Carl, Jin, Noel, Makoto, and Tsubaki), but also Valkenhayn as a Music Teacher, Bang as a Special Ed PE Teacher, Litchi as the School Nurse, Taokaka as a stray cat, Rachel as the vice principal, and Ragna as the principal.
  • Hoist Hero Over Head: Nu, Lambda, and Mu's throws and Tager's Astral Heat.
  • Homage: Word of God states that the general setting of BlazBlue draws inspiration from Trigun.
  • Hypnotize the Princess: Litchi. To Noel. With a chibi-panda. Noel's blissed out "I'm so happy~" lines only add to the Fetish Fuel.
    • What Hazama does to her in Continuum Shift is a much more sinister version.
  • I Read That As: Similarly to the confusion around the title of Jam's theme from Guilty Gear ("Babel Nose" vs. "Babel Noise"), Taokaka's theme is spelled as "Catus Carnival" in the soundtrack, but often mistakenly referred to as "Cactus Carnival" by fans.
  • Idle Animation: And your character will likely spout a unique line for each opponent.
  • In the Hood: Taokaka and the Kaka Clan's method of being The Teach Me Mrs. Litchi during the discussion of the "Wings of Justice"; Tsubaki brings up the masks of the order. Jin makes a reference to Taokaka's face why she wears a mask
    • Also in Continuum Shift the new story mode Character Platinum the Trinity is always shown almost completely obscured by a hooded cloak.
  • Inconsistent Dub: At several points in Continuum Shift story mode, the English dub track switches from using "Azure Grimoire" to its original name, "Blaz Blue," particularly with scenes with Terumi. The written script still uses "Azure Grimoire" during these instances. There are several other scenes in Continuum Shift where the spoken dialogue doesn't match the subtitles. Annoying especially because this was not a problem in Calamity Trigger.
    • One of the biggest examples would be one scene in Arakune's Story Mode when he meets Nu-13 in a sort of Battle in the Center of the Mind and she speaks in her yandere voice but the text is written as she's speaking in the usual emotionless-robot-voice. This is a subversion, as this was intentional.
    • No one can seem to agree on how Arakune's name is pronounced. The English track seems to use "arak-nee" (like the Greek monster Arachne) and the announcer uses "ara-KOO-nay".
    • Makoto's last name is pronounced in a couple of different ways. Makoto and Noel say "na-nie-ah," but Hazama and the rest in the English dub says "nan-ee-ah."
  • Inferred Holocaust: The true ending for Bang's story mode is told from the perspective of the Kaka villagers, who revere Bang as a hero for "bringing the sky back" to their underground city. What's touched upon only briefly is the fact that his actions caused the destruction of most of Kagutsuchi.
    • Though Continuum Shift took it into a canonical route and Bang SURVIVES the ordeal.
  • It Is Pronounced BLAZE Blue: And while we're at it, it's Nu-13, not Vee-13.
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: The first game asks a lot of questions, and leaves most of them hanging. While CS and other material does reveal a great deal, enough to help make sense of past events and the time-skips (along with solidifying the overarching plot of the series), it also creates even more unanswered questions.
  • Kill Sat: Take-Mikazuchi, fueled by magic power for extra destruction, but apparently nothing that Rachel can't handle, with almost no visible exertion.
  • Late Arrival Spoiler: Ragna and Jin are brothers, Kokonoe's a Catgirl and Tager's creator/boss, Hakumen is Jin from the future. They barely even count as spoilers, since they're casually mentioned several times in the story and the Fourth Wall Mail Slot.
    • The Continuum Shift trailers give away that Hazama isn't what he seems. His Arcade Mode opening wall of text casually drops the fact that he's the one pulling the strings.
    • If you bothered looking at the voice list, Jin and Hakumen have the same voice actor. The extended credits played after the True Ending do list them, when The Reveal is done. Same goes for Continuum Shift's credits, which also point out that Hazama is Terumi. The credits in the console version do try to avert this though, by replacing the names of Hakumen's and Nu's voice actors with question marks.
    • The Continuum Shift 2 opening FMV shows Noel turning into Mu-12.
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: Distortion Drives have a blue background. Astral Heats have a black one with the character's crest briefly overlaid in red.
  • Leitmotif: Like Guilty Gear, every character has one, in addition to the rivalry/relationship leitmotifs for Ragna vs. Jin, Jin vs. Noel, Rachel vs. Ragna, and Litchi vs. Arakune.
    • Continuum Shift adds Ragna vs. Hazama and Noel vs. Tsubaki to the list of rivalry themes.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: If Bururaji is to be believed, Bang's Japanese VA Tsuyoshi Koyama.
  • Magitek: The Ars Magus. True magic, such as that wielded by Phantom, is much more powerful. in a cutscene in Hazama's story Valkenhayn and Hakumen got away from the phantom and with shock. Hakumen "was that..." Valkenhayn: "how can she be here?". Whom they're referring to is Nine.
  • McNinja: Bang, to some extent.
  • Meaningful Name: Calamity Trigger refers to Ragna merging with Nu, causing the creation of the Black Beast.
    • Continuum Shift it refers to how the time loop has been broken as a result of the True Ending, thus changing the time-space continuum of the Blaz Blue universe.
  • Mind Control Eyes: Subtle, but visible in Story Mode when a character is under the influence of a Nox Nyctores. How much they're Not Themselves at the time varies.
    • Jin, when under the control of Yukianesa, sports a Slasher Smile and gets extremely wide-eyed.
    • Noel's expression becomes completely blank and empty when under Bolverk's influence.
    • And Carl's eyes get shifty when Nirvana controls him.
    • Tsubaki's Izayoi/Terumi Mind Rape induced Face Heel Turn causes her and Izaoyi's eyes to turn red.
    • Mu-12's formerly green eyes glow bright blue.
    • Worth noting that Imperator Saya seems to have these. Last time anyone saw her, she was Ragna and Jin's nice little sister. Then Terumi kidnaps her. Flash forward to today, she shows up as the Imperator, red-eyed and sans pupils (unless you zoom in really, really close. Then they're tiny dots). In Calamity trigger, Terumi took over Jin's mind and tried to kill Ragna. Which is what has happened with Saya and Tsubaki. But at the end Tsubaki quietly says "....Noel" when she was at Kagatsuchi port. Which suggests that she is fighting Terumi's influence.
  • Mirror Match. BlazBlue has a dedicated theme for these called "Blood Pain".
  • Mood Whiplash: In Continuum Shift, after the bad ending, there're some comedic hijinks with Professor Kokonoe!
  • My Future Self and Me: Depending on the friends you have and how much they like spoilers, a strangely unsurprising or Mind Screw when you find out that Hakumen is the future Jin Kisaragi, but he's renounced his Jerkass past to become a different kind of jerk ass. In Hakumen's story, it is revealed that the original Jin, the one that was kind to Saya, was in love with Tsubaki. Tsubaki, however, ended up sacrificing herself to save Jin. However, despite the two showing up in the same timeline and even meeting one another, this DOES NOT create a paradox of any kind.
  • Named Weapons:
    • Ragna's sword/scythe Blood-Scythe, special among all the other Named Weapons in that it is merely a very good sword/scythe, rather than an Artifact of Doom.
    • Litchi's staff Matenbou, is a normal pole... with shape-shifting abilities.
    • Jin's katana Hyouken (Ice Sword): Yukianesa (Snow Woman); it has the ability to form ice, at the price of sanity.
    • Noel's guns Majuu (Demon Beasts): Bolverk. It can blast through barriers of any kind and serve as a seal for Noel's emotions that aren't past A-Cup Angst.
    • Carl's puppet Kishin (God Machine): Nirvana; in reality, she's Ada, and is apparently the second.
    • Hakumen's sword Zanma (Evil Slayer): Ookami (Howling God). It can negate Ars and magical powers, which is how it can easy kill Ragna and Arakune despite their Healing Factor.
    • Murakumo Units' armor/sword dispenser Lux Sanctus (Holy Light): Murakumo (Gathering Clouds). It's just the unit's true form in a BFS.
    • Jubei's sword Mujin (Nothing Blade): Musashi Jubei explains tht Musashi's ability is tht it can cut through objects that can't be normally cut - almost anything.
    • Hazama's Jasou (Twin Snakes): Ouroboros, which take the form of snake-headed chains. It, apparently, is a Mind Rape in weaponized form; it can break the psyche of anyone it hits.
    • Tsubaki's uniform, book and sword are her Ars Magus Fuuin Heishou (Sealed Soldier's Garb): Izayoi (Sixteenth Moon). It's a dangerous Ars Magus which steals the light(read: makes you blind and lowers your life) of the wielder who uses it over time. The process is sped up if the Izayoi's power's used in battle a lot.
    • Trinity's wand Raigou (Roaring Thunder): Muchourin (Untolled Bell). Using it apparently steals the memories of the user.
    • Bang's... something Houyoku (Phoenix Wing): Rettenjou (Violent Heavenly Summit) Bang's Armagus is an anti-Nox Nyctores weapon, which means Rettenjou has the ability to destroy any Nox Nyctores. It was only mentioned by Platinum herself once, and the form is unknown. People joke that it might be his belt or, more seriously, the nail he carries.
    • Mu-12's the reincarnation of the Kamigoroshi no Tsurugi Kusanagi (Sword of the God-Slayer, Kusanagi), so says Hazama.
    • Relius' puppet Detonator: Ignis. Same deal with Carl, except he isn't screwed up by it.
  • Names to Know in Anime: The game has quite a stellar voice cast which includes Tomokazu Sugita (Kyon), Tetsuya Kakihara (Simon), Kenji Nomura (Yammy), Kana Ueda (Rin Tohsaka) and many more.
  • Never the Selves Shall Meet: Whether it's the truth or just Hazama messing with her head, it's implied that Noel does not, and is not suppose to exist in the world. In Lamda-11's story, V-11 briefly makes physical contact with her, who starts remembering everything that has happened to her in the past. That's a very bad thing.
  • Nintendo Hard: SCORE ATTACK MODE. To elaborate, you must face 10 opponents on a single continue, with the last 4 being "Unlimited" characters. Oh, and did I mention that the difficulty is even higher than the hardest selectable difficulty in the game? Even if you have a 2P controller to buzz in when you're low on health and save you from certain death, you might not survive this without having an aneurysm.
    • By EXTEND, Score Attack Mode gets lighter that the AI is just very high and you don't fight any Unlimited characters. On the other hand, say hi to UNLIMITED MARS, where you fight a series of all-Unlimited, all-High AI. Good luck with that, mate!
  • Obviously Evil: In the beginning, it's really easy to deem NOL as one, but it turns out that it's another thing. On the other hand, after Continuum Shift, Hazama becomes one so easily. Look at him: Snake Motif, eyes constantly shut, gentlemanly but shady personality who offers Deal with the Devil for poor Unwitting Pawn (poor Tsubaki and Litchi), not to mention a nickname meaning like "otherworldly", openly admitting about the only truth being despair. Need we say more?
  • Off-Model: The anime cutscenes in Continuum Shift were produced by Studio DEEN. Considering what they have already done to Fate Stay Night and Umineko no Naku Koro ni at that time, the whole Off-Model case suddenly becomes nothing more than a Dull Surprise. Needless to say, these received flak for this.
  • Order Versus Chaos: A major recurring theme.
  • Orochi: The Black Beast bears a heavy resemblance to Orochi when seen in Hakumen's Arcade mode ending. Its core is The Murakumo Unit (Nu-13), and it is defeated by the wielder of The Susanooh Unit (Hakumen). It was a failed attempt to create The Kusanagi Unit, and destroy The Master Unit Amaterasu.
    • And the guy who made it has an entire snake motif. Ironically, he used to be in the Susanooh Unit
  • Out of Focus: A number of fans say that certain characters, mainly Carl and Bang, "aren't important" to the overall plot, and neither show up in either games true ending. Will likely be averted by the next game, as Bang's Phoenix Nox is now known to him, and Carl's Archnemesis Dad Relius is half of the game's Big Bad Duumvirate.
  • Personality Blood Types: Most characters official blood types are:
    • Type A: Jin, Noel, Tsubaki, Valkenhayn, Relius (NOL members, mostly)
    • Type B: Ragna, Bang, Kokonoe (Impulsive People)
    • Type AB: Carl, Litchi, Hazama, Platinum (Intellectuals, for the most part)
    • Type O: Taokaka, Makoto, Jubei (Beastmen)
    • Unknown/Other: Rachel, Tager, Arakune, Hakumen
  • Phlebotinum Overload: Arakune got too much exposure to the power of the Boundary along with a heavy dose of extra experimentation a la Terumi and got turned into... well, that.hazama tells arakune*arcade story* that he was a failed cauldron, a partial black beast. "You only know how to devour souls, nothing more."
    • In her bad ending in CS, Litchi also takes too much of the power of the Boundary in and begins to lose her memories and sense of identity.
    • More generally, seithr addiction is a major problem among soldiers in the NOL, as they overuse their Ars Magus and end up manifesting some... unpleasant symptoms. If you're lucky, death is one of the ones that comes quickly.
  • Pinball Scoring: A typical one-round score will start in the low billions of points.
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Nox Nytores were each made from thousands of human souls used in Nine's human transmutation technique.
  • Practical Taunt: Taunting in story or arcade mode completely fills your heat meter (useful in story mode if you have to end a fight with a special move to unlock a given ending).
  • Rage Quit: In online multiplayer, the game tries to alleviate this behavior by slapping a "Disconnected" counter on anyone who quits in the middle of a ranked match. However, the counter goes up for both the quitter and the non-quitter of the match, no matter the reason.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Six Heroes: One robot-samurai, one bipedal cat, one ghost/spirit-thingie, one witch, one werewolf butler and to top it of a Magical Girl with a personality disorder.
    • Arguably the whole playable cast could count as this.
  • Rapunzel Hair: A lot. Litchi keeps hers up in a bun, and occasionally while Platinum keeps hers hidden in that cloak but a quick glance reveals that every woman has hair that goes at least down to the middle of their backs, with most extending past their waists or beyond. Hell, you see those enormous rope-like things hanging off of Tao? Those are braids.
  • Razor Wings: The Murakumo units from the BlazBlue series have "wings" made of blades that are used for their heavy attacks.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: In case you didn't catch on before, the game will even kindly poetically refer to a clash between Ragna and Jin as a fight of "red against blue" in Story Mode.
    • The series' dual Big Bads Terumi and Relius act as a Red Oni and Blue Oni to each other.
  • Reincarnation: Ragna is believed to be the reincarnation of the Black Beast.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Kaka kittens. So. Cute.
  • Rivals Team Up: The second game's true ending, which has Ragna, Jin, and Hakumen all attempting to work together. Hakumen holds his own until Jin shows up, interrupts the fight, and proceeds to fail miserably. The story was phrased as such that Hakumen wasn't beaten when Jin initially arrived and before he had a chance to resume Ragna showed up and defeated Mu, keeping Terumi's Xanatos Gambit alive.
  • Rotoscoping: BlazBlue's sprites are drawn over 3D models. Not to the same extent as King of Fighters XII & XIII though, Arc only uses the un-textured 3D models for the outlines unlike SNK which uses the 3D models for colour and shadowing.
  • Saved for the Sequel: The series runs on this. Calamity Trigger does not explain what exactly happened to Arakune, why Litchi is so bent on rescuing him, what Hazama is up to, who he works for, why Carl is looking for his father, what "Amaterasu" is, who the other five of the Six Heroes are, among many other plot details, creating a Mind Screw in general. Continuum Shift answers these questions, but brings up more. For instance, now that we know Carl is looking for his father because he's an absolute scumbag, we learn that he is a Chessmaster villain but nothing about what he wants or what he intends to do. Arakune is regaining sentience, but Litchi is about to do to herself what Arakune did before. Bang has the power to close portals to The Edge but has yet to have an opportunity to use it. And so forth.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: The Black Beast. Ragna is the can. Nu-13 is the can opener.
  • Sealed Evil in a Duel: The reason the Black Beast goes dormant, allowing the Six Heroes to slay him is because Ragna is trapped, fighting him endlessly for a year, until his death.
  • Sequel Hook: The true ending, and by extension the rest of story mode, is almost nothing but a sequel hook, up to including obvious picks for future playable characters. And little more than a year later, a sequel was indeed announced. The sequel itself also ends in one, with everyone going to Ikaruga as the next stage of the eventual battle.
  • Serial Escalation:
    • Calamity Trigger, the first game, starts with being a rather standard fighting game, except for its overly absurd Pinball Scoring: You pick a character, go through 10 fights and have to beat an Unlimited character (essentially an SNK Boss) to win the game. But the game has a bonus boss, which is absurd even for Unlimited standard.
    • Then you can try going through the Score Attack mode, which pits you against all 12 playable characters in the game, all at the highest AI difficulty, with the last four bosses being Unlimited characters.
    • Then Continuum Shift, the sequel, adds two more characters to the roster, one of which comes with an Unlimited mode as a final boss, and thus adding them to the Score Attack mode. That means 14 characters in a row, with the last five being SNK Bosses.
    • Then Continuum Shift II adds even more characters, but surprisingly its Score Attack mode is reduced to fighting 10 normal characters. The reason for this is (unfortunately) simple: CS II has a second Score Attack mode named Unlimited Mars mode, where every enemy you fight is in Unlimited mode. To rephrase: that's almost a dozen characters, all of which are SNK Bosses.
    • Continuum Shift II Extend downsizes the escalation by merely adding one additional character as well as adding more moves to the already-broken Unlimited characters.
  • Shout-Out: Has its own page.
  • Significant Birth Date: Noel's birthday is on Dec 25 (Christmas). Ragna's birthday is Mar 3 (Girl's Day). Jin's birthday is Feb 14 (Valentine's Day), coupled with Tsubaki being born on March 14 (White Day). Rachel the vampire is Oct 31 (Halloween). Idiot Hero Taokaka is Feb 22 (World Thinking Day and Cat's day in Japan). Anime Chinese Girl Litchi is Jul 7 (Chinese Valentine's Day). Cute little boy Carl is May 5 (Children's Day). Kokonoe the scientist is Apr 18 (Invention Day). Hazama is Apr 29 (International Dance Day). Nu was born on New Year's Eve. Finally, Bang was born on New Year's Day, though whether or not this is symbolic is debatable.
    • Makoto's birthday is The International Children Book Day. See the Fridge Page for more details.
  • Silliness Switch: The joke ending for each character's story mode.
  • Simultaneous Arcs: Continuum Shift's canon paths.
  • Sinister Scythe: Ragna's sword, Blood-Scythe, lives up to its name during his Astral Heat by turning into a scythe with red energy for its blade.
  • Sink or Swim Mentor: Kokonoe's preferred method of instruction in the "Help me, Professor Kokonoe!" segments. She borders on not helping at all. Due to the nature of the advice room these take place in, this comes to haunt her with a few characters that she *HAS* to give advice to or they cannot leave. She ends up having a very odd session with Jin, argues with Hakumen, has to yell at Hazama, and only seemed to like about four or five of all of them total.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Pretty damn cynical. The characters all live in a Crapsack World ruled by an oppressive government, the only person who can actually get any shit done about it accomplishes this by slaughtering almost all of the government employees he sees (And yes, he's the good guy. Did we mention this is a Crapsack World?), and the most idealistic characters either exist for mockery or have so much shit piled on them that they can barely function Complete Monsters are abound and always get the upper hand (for now). Bits of idealism occasionally shimmer through here and there via the characters' true/joke endings.
  • Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: High. Terumi and Relius are borderline Infinite levels with the amount of victories they've achieved. And it is not going down anytime soon.
  • Spontaneous Weapon Creation: It's implied that the Kaka Clan's claws are of this nature; that is, they have the ability to produce them, rather than them being retractable. Taokaka (the only playable example of the species so far) seems to be able to produce them in a number of shapes.
  • Sprite Polygon Mix: As stated above.
  • Stealth Parody: An over-the-top reference-laden fighting game with copious Engrish and a byzantine plot through which we discover most every character is an amnesiac, a clone, a time-displaced version of another character or in the same family? Which one?
  • Story-Breaker Power: Many characters have broken powers that never show up in their gameplay. Terumi can Mind Rape anyone hit by his chain. Mu can create anything (including time and space) out of thin air. Hakumen and Jin can erase anything they want. Be glad they limit themselves most of the time.
  • Stripperific: First, we had Litchi, who always took the time to move the upper half of half of her dress out of the way so we could see her ample chest and legs better, as well as Noel (they're both Fetish Fuel Station Attendant). Then we got Mu-12, whose outfit consists of a metal thong, some shoulder pads, and a sort of Breast Plate that still allows for a bare midriff. Then there's Makoto, whose outfit is... well, just take a look. Really, if you're going to go that far, why bother putting clothes on the girl? And dear lord, let's not start on fighting, miniskirts, and lolicons...
  • Super Mode: Unlimited Mode for everyone.
  • Super-Deformed: Teach Me, Ms. Litchi! and Help Me, Professor Kokonoe!
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: Mu-12, the console exclusive character for Continuum Shift is Noel after being turned back into her original Murakamo form by Terumi.
  • Take Our Word for It: Bloodedge (Ragna's namesake, not the protagonist) was such a badass, that he was the only person in the world who went to fight the Black Beast when it first awakened. He fought it for an entire year and bought enough time for the Six Heroes to mount a counterattack. Unfortunately, Jubei is the only source of this information, mentioning him once very briefly, and the game doesn't provide with any kind of visual imagery for this inspiring event.
    • The Prequel Manga, Phase 0, reveals that Ragna WAS Bloodedge. Just without the Azure Grimoire.
  • Technical Pacifist: Hazama insists to Noel that he's not really the fighting type.
  • Terminator Twosome: In the backstory (and, by extension, most of the endings), the Black Beast passes one hundred years into history and attempts to slaughter the world, only to be thwarted by Jin following it after getting upgraded into Hakumen.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: In most cases, this would be grouped with storytelling tropes, however, all instances occur in gameplay.
  • Theme Naming: Tsubaki and Jin's surnames (Yayoi and Kisaragi, Respectively) are traditional Japanese names for months of the year. In Continuum Shift, it is revealed that the twelve families that serve the Imperator called "The Duodecim" all have surnames that are traditional Japanese months.
    • Everyone has a bit of this in their attacks: Litchi has attacks named after mahjongg hands (Thirteen Orphans, Four Winds, All Green), Carl's attacks are musically-themed (Cantata and Crescendo), Rachel has quite a few flowers (Baden Baden Lily and Sword Iris come to mind), Bang has his "Secret" and "Forbidden" techniques, etc.
    • The Murakumo Units are all named with one Greek letter and a number, with the number being the letter's position in the Greek alphabet.
  • There Are No Therapists: The world of BlazBlue could benefit some therapists, really. Even Litchi, who would look like the closest to be the therapists also needs one. Either NOL put a ban on therapist or there's just none...
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill:

"It's The Only Way To Be Sure: Complete a 20-hit combo after already winning the round."

    • Astral Heats. Flashy finishing moves that are by no means practical but are fun to look at.
    • Go watch Arakune's "Help Me, Professer Kokonoe". They will tell you the sad truth.
    • Tager players love to attempt this.
  • This Trope Is Bleep
    • Kokonoe wanted to put something on Tager's GIGANTIC TAGER, but she didn't think it was practical.
    • Well, first, Kokonoe intended to take Ragna's INFERNO DIVIDER and put it in a CARNAGE SCISSORS. Maybe a little GAUNTLET HADES, to go with. We can only imagine what his HELL'S FANG will DEAD SPIKE... No, really, that was pretty much word for word.
  • Token Evil Teammate and Token Good Teammate: Just to make sure this doesn't fall into Black and White Morality, you'll find these at the end of the series. On the good guys, Jin and Kokonoe are still colossal self-serving assholes despite opposing Terumi, with Jin possibly getting a bit better to stop being a Token Evil one (thanks to Jubei) while Kokonoe gets even worse... On the bad guys, there's Litchi who still retained her sanity, her motivation being Forced Into Evil as well as still capable of (and will) acting kind and motherly.
  • Too Awesome to Use: It is possible to fall into this trap with Barrier Burst.
  • Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Jin Kisaragi and Noel Vermillion share this. Both cannot remember certain events before the Civil War which causes some issues.
    • Justified in Noel's case. She was only five years old.
    • And in Jin's case. Terumi ate his memories.
    • That last one is something you should never have the oppurtunity to say.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Tsubaki. Hazama's {partial} revelation that she wouldn't have been so unlucky had Noel never existed was the deciding factor in her Face Heel Turn.
  • Unreliable Narrator: It's safe to say that, if the Narrator's talking, things have stopped being canon and a possible Funny Moment is about to ensue. For example, In one Taokaka ending, she ends up as the apprentice of Bang. That part is canon. What isn't, is when he says she'll become a great ninja, and then descriptions for an epic ninja movie starring Taokaka, complete with Jin as a mysterious man and boobie lady Litchi as the villain behind the entire plot. After this long description? "... Okay, that was a lie-nya."
    • Rachel gives an accurate, but Extremely Lemony account of Hakumen's history in his Arcade mode ending. She also teaches the Tutorial of Continuum Shift, never being afraid to mock you as a player or Ragna or Bang... Especially Bang, since he's used as the training dummy.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Poor, poor Tsubaki. And Litchi.
  • Vague Age: Despite the setting having a specific calendar, characters with stated birth dates, and the plot going forth and back in timeline events, none of the characters have canon ages (except Noel); one can make up which character is younger/older than the other, but even this isn't a safe assumption if there's no cemented ages to go by.
  • Wham! Episode: Continuum Shift's True Ending is nothing but a non-stop marathon of Whams. Probably the biggest one is the revelation of the Imperator Librarius. It's Saya in case you were wondering.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Noel's and Tsubaki's seiyuu fighting using their respective characters. Epic button mashing ensues.
  • Widget Series: The game simply doesn't have the following and lineage Street Fighter does. It's also a popular reason that the game is more popular on Playstation 3 than Xbox 360.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Nox Nyctores amplify the psychoses in their users, turning them insane. Or, if you're less unlucky, just purging your memories and reverting you into an emotionless robot.
  • World of Badass: Well, this IS a Fighting Game, after all.
  • World of Ham: Nearly every character (except Rachel and Litchi, for the most part) gets the chance to partake of the scenery. Terumi goes back for seconds, and thirds, and fourths, and fifths... Oh yeah, and then there's Bang.
  • Your Brain Won't Be Much of a Meal: Arakune (sort of) says this when given the chance to consume Bang Shishigami when the former wins.


  1. It's Baa.
  2. When the timer reaches 10 seconds
  3. Carl Clover
  4. Arakune
  5. Rebel
  6. "Final answer?" Sadly, this line was not brought over, being replaced with "Are you sure?"
  7. Carl Clover, for anyone trying to put it together.
  8. Exciting!
  9. Dangerous!